Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 162: Education Reform

Facts have proven that Prime Minister Primó dared to put forward such a somewhat exaggerated Five-Year Development Plan goal after giving it practical consideration and making adequate preparations.

The total fiscal expenditure of the Spanish Government for the whole year of 1873 reached as high as 3 million pesetas, and since the Spanish Revolution, the Spanish Government had never faced such a high amount of fiscal expenditure.

But compared to this year’s total fiscal budget, 3 million pesetas is not that big a number.

Because this year, the government’s total fiscal budget reaches as high as 2 million pesetas, which is more than 150 million higher than last year.

Such ample fiscal budget has indeed instantly resolved the worries of the cabinet ministers and also kept the ministers of the second cabinet government with ample expectations for the completion of the second Five-Year Development Plan.

Under Prime Minister Primó’s insistence, the House of Representatives quickly passed the 1874 fiscal budget submitted by the cabinet government. However, this did not quell the civilian discussions about this fiscal budget, after all, such high fiscal expenditure is almost twice the annual fiscal expenditure during the first Five-Year Plan period.

For the Spanish Government, this absolutely counts as a bold gamble. If this fiscal expenditure of nearly 900 million pesetas can indeed bring more rewards, the public will naturally cheer.

But if the fiscal expenditure of nearly 900 million pesetas fails to achieve any good results, then all kinds of doubts about Prime Minister Primó will come.

What gives Prime Minister Primó such confidence in so boldly expanding the fiscal budgets of government departments?

Of course, it is the various enterprises and equipment purchased at low prices from various countries, including the technical data, production data owned by these enterprises, and those skilled workers with production experience. Although the Spanish Government is openly continuously digging up those excellent engineers and research personnel on the surface, behind the scenes it is also continuously absorbing employees from these purchased companies to come to Spain.

One or two skilled workers may not play a big role, but what if there are hundreds or even thousands? These skilled workers concentrated in any factory can extremely effectively improve the production experience and productivity of that factory.

And for some existing factories in Spain, what they currently lack most are workers with such production experience and excellent technical abilities.

To attract these excellent skilled workers, the Spanish side has offered very generous conditions. For example, providing free housing for three years to these skilled workers and their families, providing new jobs with higher income than their original work, and ensuring medical conditions and education conditions for their families, etc.

Such conditions already have a certain attractiveness in normal times, let alone when various countries are deeply trapped in the quagmire of economic crisis.

Facing Spain’s high-profile talent absorption policy, the most uncomfortable is perhaps Spain’s neighboring country Portugal.

Because talent from other countries still has to consider language communication issues, Portuguese basically do not need to consider. Portuguese and Spanish language can conduct short communications, and Portuguese have no problem understanding Spanish.

These two languages are more like dialects from two close regions in posterity, with just a tiny bit of difference, but it does not affect communication and exchange between each other.

Although Portugal is not greatly affected by the economic crisis, it depends on who it is compared to. Spain, apart from imports and exports, has basically not been affected by the economic crisis in other aspects.

On the contrary, because of various constructions and great developments in Spain, the unemployed population has not only become fewer and fewer, but there are also many positions with not low income that are urgently short of experienced employees.

Just in the whole year of 1873, the total population attracted by Spain from Portugal has already approached 10,000 people. Apart from a small number of research-type talents and senior engineers among them, the other several thousand are workers and other talents with certain technical abilities.

As long as the economic crisis continues, the situation of Spain absorbing population from Portugal will not change. This is of course a good thing for Spain, but not so good for Portugal.

However, the Portuguese Government temporarily has no way to solve it, after all, although what Spain is doing has some suspicion of kicking someone when they are down, it has not violated the laws of any country.

Of course, in this era, laws cannot restrain any country. Only powerful strength can do it, and all other treaties and decrees are just empty talk.

Last year, the funds spent by Spain on absorbing talent and purchasing foreign enterprises were not much, only 6 million pesetas.

Of course, the main reason is that the economic crisis broke out in mid-year, and the time actually used for purchasing enterprises and attracting talent was less than half a year.

This also means that 1874 will be an extremely important year. This is the second year after the economic crisis and a complete year. The government must complete the enterprise purchase plan formulated last year this year, and absorb enough technical talent, senior engineers, and research personnel.

If another year passes, various countries will also have certain control over the economic crisis, and it will not be so easy to purchase enterprises or absorb talent anymore.

Precisely because of this, this year’s so-called external operations budget reaches as high as 270 million pesetas. If added to last year’s budget, the total expenditure for purchasing enterprises and absorbing talent will exceed 400 million pesetas, of which purchasing enterprises will cost about 300 million pesetas, absorbing talent will cost about 100 million pesetas, which is not much different from previous expectations.

Further on, it is to patch up technical talents and do one’s best to win over related research talents. Because of the uncertainty of talent shortages, and other countries may promulgate decrees to prevent talent poaching actions like Spain’s, there is no specific budget for actions in this aspect, and everything must be judged according to the situation at that time.

Even deducting the 270 million external operations budget, the Spanish Government’s total fiscal budget this year still reaches as high as 2 million pesetas.

Because of the great expansion of army numbers, Spain’s military expenses are still the largest part of fiscal expenditure. The fiscal budget of the Spanish Ministry of Defense in 1874 reaches as high as 3 million pesetas, accounting for 1% of the total fiscal budget.

Next is the construction invested in the industrial aspect. Even without counting the expenditure on purchasing enterprises and absorbing talent, the budget of the industry department still reaches as high as 7 million pesetas, exactly one-fifth of the fiscal expenditure.

The transportation department, as a newly established cabinet department, has its fiscal budget ranking third among all cabinet departments, with a total budget close to 130 million pesetas.

After all, it is to construct more than 3,500 kilometers of railways and a large number of roads, and giving the transportation department so much fiscal budget, other departments have no objections.

Just constructing 3,500 kilometers of railways is enough to give people a headache, not to mention that the transportation department also needs to be responsible for road construction, as well as train station construction, train route deployment, materials transportation, etc.

For a newly established department, facing quite severe tests in the first year of establishment. But if these tests are completed, the merit that the transportation department can obtain will definitely be one of the most among cabinet departments.

Further down are the livelihood department, public security department, education department, medical department, and agricultural department, each with their own fiscal budgets, and the total scale will definitely be much more compared to previous years.

The diplomatic department is relatively independent, and the fiscal budget is not small. After all, the diplomatic department needs to maintain diplomatic embassies stationed in various countries, and carry out some diplomatic activities, etc., and insufficient funding will face big problems.

With such a huge fiscal budget, Prime Minister Primó must have reported it to Carlo. Considering that the temple treasure has indeed brought considerable confidence to the government, Carlo also went along with it and approved this fiscal budget report.

After all, with that temple treasure, the Spanish Government can at least issue tens of billions of pesetas in currency. Although the fiscal expenditure of nearly 900 million pesetas looks exaggerated, the Currency Issuance Committee had previously planned to increase issuance of pesetas.

This seemingly exaggerated fiscal expenditure is actually just to circulate these additionally issued pesetas to the market in a reasonable way.

However, Carlo is not doing nothing. Under Carlo’s advice, Prime Minister Primó appropriately increased the fiscal budget for the education department, helping the education department better carry out the popularization of literacy education, and promote the popularization of higher-level education, etc.

Before Carlo ascended the throne, Spain’s illiteracy rate was as high as 70%, on par with Italy as brothers in difficulty.

And after experiencing five years of development, Spain’s illiteracy rate has also been effectively reduced. Currently, according to statistics from the Spanish Government, in these five years, the population in Spain that has received literacy education has approached 4 million, with an average of more than 800,000 people receiving the government’s literacy education every year.

Especially after Carlo decided to provide a free lunch to all who receive literacy education, more people participated in literacy education.

Currently, Spain’s illiteracy rate has been reduced to below 45%, achieving such results in just five years, and the merit of the education department is indeed not small.

But a 45% illiteracy rate still cannot satisfy Carlo’s expectations. The reason Carlo asked Prime Minister Primó to increase the fiscal budget of the education department is precisely to thoroughly reduce Spain’s illiteracy rate to below 20% by the completion of the second Five-Year Plan.

It must be known that Spain also has many elderly and disabled people who are not suitable for education. Considering their existence, a 20% illiteracy rate is actually already quite low.

On this basis, vigorously develop middle school and senior high school education, and promulgate a series of policies to reduce or exempt tuition fees and miscellaneous fees for higher education, this is the effective way to cultivate native talents for Spain.

Talking about cultivating university students before the illiteracy rate is thoroughly reduced is actually not solving the fundamentals.

After all, the prerequisite for having enough university students is to have enough high school students. The prerequisite for having enough high school students is to have enough middle school students.

This is also the importance of laying a good foundation. Only by building primary education well can one seek higher-level middle school and senior high school education.

Only by building middle school and senior high school education well can one seek more university students. If the goal is only set on university development and university student cultivation, Spain’s education will eventually be a castle in the air.

After all, under the premise that most people are illiterate, how can it be ensured that Spain can cultivate enough excellent university student talents every year?

Not long after the fiscal budget was passed by the House of Representatives, Spain’s new Minister of Education Gerard Wilson personally sought to see Carlo and reported the specific development goals of the education department regarding the Five-Year Development Plan.

Reporting the current situation and plans of the Ministry of Education to Carlo was something Minister of Education Gerard Wilson thought about for a long time before deciding.

Gerard Wilson is actually a Liberal Party person, and because of his rich qualifications in education, plus some ideas on educational reform that gained the favor of Prime Minister Primó, he became the Minister of Education under Prime Minister Primó’s cabinet.

Originally, Gerard Wilson only wanted to carry out his own educational reform well in the Ministry of Education, but after learning that part of the high budget of the Ministry of Education was due to Carlo’s request, he knew he could not remain indifferent.

After all, Carlo is the King of Spain, even Prime Minister Primó must maintain sufficient respect, let alone a Minister of Education who has just been promoted.

“Your Majesty.” When seeking to see Carlo, Gerard Wilson kept his posture very low, without any airs as a cabinet member.

“Minister Gerard, I am very pleased to see you become the Minister of Education. I believe under your leadership, the education department will have greater achievements.” Carlo nodded plainly, signaling Gerard Wilson to sit on the sofa beside.

The previous Minister of Education did not continue in the second cabinet government, the biggest reason is that he had no outstanding achievements in education.

That a non-Progressive Party person like Gerard Wilson who advocates educational reform could become a cabinet minister also proves Prime Minister Primó’s emphasis on educational reform.

After all, Spain’s existing education system is still too outdated, obviously not adapting well to the new-style education of European great power countries.

Even many countries are already popularizing compulsory education, and Spain has not completely reduced the illiteracy rate, which is also why Prime Minister Primó is anxious.

“Thank you for Your Majesty’s trust. I will certainly sum up the shortcomings of the education department of the previous government, create a better learning environment for all Spaniards, and change the current state of Spain’s education.” Gerard Wilson also did not overly humble himself, because sometimes being humble is not a good thing.

Carlo nodded and began his test: “Minister Gerard, does the education department have any new ideas on the direction and focus of future educational reform?”

After hearing Carlo’s question, Gerard Wilson did not rush to answer, but thought carefully for a while, organized his words in his mind, and then respectfully replied: “Your Majesty, I believe Spain is in great need of educational reform.

I have examined in Germany for a period of time, and the Germans’ emphasis on education is incomparable to all other countries. The formal law of the Germans on compulsory education originates from the 《Rural Education Regulations》 promulgated by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1763, but their compulsory education actually started even a century earlier.

I believe that the reason the Germans successively defeated the Austrians and the French, apart from their powerful army and excellent military technology, a major reason is that they early promoted the popularization of compulsory education.

The illiteracy rate in the entire German region is the lowest among all European regions, showing the Germans’ emphasis on education.

Therefore, I think that in Spain’s development, education is absolutely an indispensable part. Even if we cannot formulate a compulsory education system like Germany’s, we must promulgate some policies to reduce the burden of education on the public.

Only when more and more people receive education can more talents be cultivated. The improvement that talents bring to the country and society is obvious, and the talents brought by education will make the country stronger and stronger, which cannot be compared to absorbing talents from foreign countries.

For the direction of Spain’s educational reform, I believe the primary goal should be placed on basic education and technical education.

In terms of basic education, I believe compulsory basic education should be fully popularized nationwide, ensuring that all Spaniards can receive about 2 years of basic education, reducing Spain’s illiteracy rate from the root.

The basic education time of about 2 years is temporary. When the government’s fiscal budget is sufficient in the future, I believe the basic education time should be elevated to the entire primary school stage, that is, about 6 years.

Only by ensuring that all Spaniards complete about six years of primary education can our educational reform be considered to have achieved initial success, and educational reform will have visible results.

Next is the technical education aspect. Technical education mainly targets our adults, with the aim of cultivating enough technical talents for Spain.

Cultivating a talent from infancy takes a long time, but our country now lacks a large number of technical talents.

For such problems, I believe it is necessary to build more technical schools to help more ordinary workers undergo technical training, letting them grow into skilled workers.

This way, not only can the problem of technical talent shortage be solved, but also effectively increase these people’s wages and income.

For the shortage of senior technical talents, I think we can also implement a dual-track education system to cultivate our excellent technical talents from a young age.

The idea of the dual-track education system is as follows:

The more conventional track one, students can complete conventional education from primary school to middle school, senior high school, and then university, and the university students finally cultivated are the senior talents we lack.

The other track, after completing basic education or primary education, can choose to undergo basic technical education and senior technical education cultivation, finally cultivating the senior technical talents we lack.

To give these technical talents more paths, students undergoing basic technical education and senior technical education can also enter senior high school or university through exams, finally returning to the first track education system.

Your Majesty, this is the direction of Spain’s educational reform that I have conceived, as well as some key points of Spain’s future educational reform.” Gerard Wilson explained his educational reform goals and plans to Carlo one by one with respect on his face but full confidence.

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